Jacen's Rants

Beware of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! spoilers

I don't think it's an exaggeration to call the Bandori MyGO anime one of the best anime of all time. It's utterly emotion-filled, and every episode hits you with a gut punch. I'm sure there will be plenty of people writing in-depth reviews and analyses, so I'm going to focus on my personal observation: every character in this anime is a terrible self-centered person.

Anon – Anon's base motivation for everything she does is increasing her own clout and popularity, and while she does mellow out and start caring a bit more for her fellow bandmates, she never fully loses her gremlin tendencies.

Soyo – From the very beginning, you can tell something is not quite right with Soyo. She claims that everything she did for MyGO was solely for the purpose of trying to reform CRYCHIC (and I am inclined to believe her), and she crosses a number of lines trying to get in contact with Sakiko under the guise of wanting what was best for everyone when realistically she was the only one who actually wanted CRYCHIC to be reformed. Saki may not have had the full picture, but she also wasn't completely off-base: “you only ever think about yourself, don't you?”

Taki – Taki is a bit less black-and-white than all of the other characters. She clearly cares a lot about Tomori and legitimately wants what's best for her and the band. However, she herself admits that she tried to do what she thought was best for Tomori without actually considering Tomori's feelings.

Rana – Rana is Rana. I don't think she's physically capable of thinking or caring about anyone other than herself. Everything she does in the anime is for her own amusement or satisfaction, even if some of her actions do end up helping out the other members incidentally.

Sakiko – Whatever her reasoning for abruptly quitting CRYCHIC and breaking contact with its members, she handled it in the worst possible way and ended up hurting a lot of people in the aftermath.

Mutsumi – If Saki is the instigator of the drama in MyGO, Mutsumi is the one who dealt the fatal blow. Soyo observes that Mutsumi has no filter, so it's possible she didn't actually intend to hurt anyone with her words, but “I didn't mean to” isn't an acceptable excuse to hide behind.

Tomori – The only major character who isn't just straight up a terrible person. While you could argue that a few of her actions throughout the course of the show might have been a little selfish, at the end of the day her motivation is just to be a normal person, which is a wish that everyone is entitled to having. While when all is said and done she doesn't quite get that wish, at least she gets to have the company of people who are just as lost as she is.

At the end of the day, pretty much everyone in this show is a terrible person in some way, and the fact that it still manages to get you to care about and root for all of them is just another testament to how good of an anime it is.

#BanGDream #Bandori #MyGO #anime

Discuss...

Jacen Sekai — 04/24/2023 4:49 PM A few people said “Rui” so let's talk about Rui His backstory is that he was mostly abandoned by his friends because he kept getting them involved in things they didn't want to be involved in and kept getting them hurt He does things for his own curiosity and amusement and doesn't think about the feelings of anyone else He had an entire event around him actually considering other people's feelings and the rest of WxS said “no, you must stop considering the feelings of others” He is not misunderstood or misinterpreted; he is just actively a bad character Between all of the idol and idol-adjacent franchises I have consumed, he is the only character who I actively dislike

Discuss...

Beware of Braking Point spoilers

For the uninitiated, the Formula 1 video games added a feature in F1 2021 called “Braking Point”. It's basically a story mode, where you role play as a young F1 driver and get thrown into various scenarios along the way. As far as stories go, it's definitely not going to win any awards, but sometimes a cringe campy story is all you really want from a video game.

One of the recurring characters in Breaking Point is Devon Butler, who is basically the embodiment of what your average American thinks an F1 driver is: arrogant, with more money than sense or skills. He's built up as a rival to the main protagonist, Aiden Jackson, and takes every opportunity to antagonize him for no reason other than being a dick.

In F1 23, Devon and Aiden find themselves as teammates on a fledgling F1 team trying to establish itself in the series. It's revealed very early on that the team is at least partially funded by Devon's father.

The big plot twist of Braking Point 2 is a reveal that Devon is suffering from hearing issues, and is forced to retire mid-season. The way the game presents this to the player is intended to make the player feel sympathy for Devon, despite him being an irredeemable jerk to Aiden moment earlier and only having an F1 seat thanks to his father's money.

The problem with most story arcs that try to make you feel sympathy for villains and antagonists is that most of the time there's no effort put into making the characters sympathetic before the moment the audience is meant to feel sympathy for them. You can't just take an intentionally unlikeable character and expect the audience to immediately like them the nanosecond you want them to.

Granted, Braking Point also has a problem where none of the characters are particularly likeable, but that's a rant for another time.

Discuss...